On a rare child free day off I decided to pay a visit to Anthony’s Patisserie in the Victoria Quarter. It is the sort of place that I hold in reserve for special treats when ogling the cake cabinet is at least half the fun, and can only be done without a restless toddler in tow. I still haven’t made up my mind about Anthony’s – having had both amazing and disappointing cake from them in the past. But it always looks inviting and having always gone to the one in the Corn Exchange, I thought I would try the VQ version.
First of all, you cannot deny that the location is impressive. The dappled light coming through the beautiful stained glass ceiling and the sound of the fountain in the arcade is conducive to a relaxing time. I really enjoyed spending time reading my book sitting at my marble table on my luxurious leather chair with half an eye on the people milling about in the arcade.
Of course I eyed up the cakes before sitting down and had decided which cupcake I liked the look of – caramel. It was slightly amusing that the waitress didn’t mention it in her list of flavours reeled off from her note pad – but I did not give up on it so easily. The cake in question had a beautiful golden buttercream topping adorned with pieces of a sort of cross between chocolate covered honeycomb and cinder toffee. The cake underneath was light and moist and was just about measure for its volume of sweet topping. (My previous criticisms have been the cake being too dry or the topping overly sweet..)
I washed it down with a cappuccino, which was very decent and very large and so allowed me to sit for as long as I did without feeling pressured to vacate my table. The total cost was under £5 and I was happy with that. It did strike me that I was one of only about 4 customers there, and while I got good service I don’t know what it would be like when it was busy. So overall, it’s a nice spot for grown up coffee & cake in the city centre, but not close to rivaling Sunshine Bakery for my favourite cake in Leeds.
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